Rising Appalachia

Sisters Leah and Chloe Smith formed Rising Appalachia as a vehicle for blending Southern folk roots with contemporary global influences and activist themes, using their performances to advocate social progress alongside artistic exploration. Leah has also issued material under the solo alias Leah Song. Both were born in Georgia and raised primarily in Atlanta, where their mother worked as a jazz pianist and their father, a devoted folk aficionado, regularly hosted hootenannies at the family home. While immersed in Atlanta’s urban environment, the pair absorbed soul and hip-hop, yet extensive travels eventually drew them back to Appalachian traditions through direct collaboration with rural players. In 2005 the siblings recorded several tracks overnight in a friend’s home studio, distributing the results informally as gifts. Positive word-of-mouth prompted an official 2006 release of that material under the title Leah and Chloe and the Rising Appalachia name; the duo soon adopted the moniker permanently and settled in New Orleans, busking on the streets between paid engagements. Their follow-up album, Scale Down, appeared in 2007. The next year they temporarily retired the Rising Appalachia brand to perform under the banner R.I.S.E., an interdisciplinary collective uniting artists around community causes, and issued the live recording Evolutions in Sound: Live. Although continuing R.I.S.E. activities, they reinstated the original name in 2010 with the album The Sails of Self. International touring expanded, and percussionist Biko Casini along with multi-instrumentalist David Brown joined as core live members. The 2012 release Filthy Dirty South was funded through crowdfunding and self-released, consistent with the sisters’ longstanding practice of handling production, management, and promotion themselves. Wider Circles arrived in 2015, promoted via an all-rail tour, while Leah simultaneously introduced the Slow Music Movement to explore community-oriented performance models. The 2016 Fertile Grounds Tour underscored connections between local food producers and consumers and coincided with a partnership announced alongside the Permaculture Action Network; the single “Find Your Way” accompanied those dates. The concert album Alive followed in 2017, and the Remast EP appeared the subsequent year, featuring David Brown’s remixes and credited jointly to Castanea and Rising Appalachia. Leylines, issued in 2019, included guest contributions from Trevor Hall and Ani DiFranco.